Comments on: The LGBT Hate Crimes Project: John Lloyd Griffin & Tommy Lee Trimble

By: Glen

Glen — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:45:00 +0000

I remember this vividly. I went to high school with all three of the guys who were involved in the shooting. Two of them (Darren Scribner and Rusty McDaniel) were always really sadistic guys. Darren sat next to me in a couple of classess and harassed me constantly (I am a femme gay man and he loved to aggravate me). I was always afraid of him. As for Rick, I also sat next to him in a class. He was always very quiet and rather nice, shy even. I would help him out in class and never perceived any animosity. His actions really shocked me. To this day, I believe that he did it not out of any hate toward gay people, but solely to try to prove himself to the other two guys who just had this manipulative, evil aura…..peer pressure gone wrong. Even when they were arrested at school and taken from class, it seemed that people already knew why. I think they bragged about it. It was a horrible thing, and I remember my horror at people’s gossip. It wasn’t that they had killed two guys. The concensus on the gossip headline was “Ya, they killed two fags…”. Was sort of an eye opener to me as to how people can rationalize and dismiss murder so readily when it happens to “undesirables”. All the other students at school acted as if the tragedy was them being arrested.

By: LP

LP — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:44:44 +0000

Do we know if Richard Bednarski is out on parole yet? That would be a shame it he is.

By: Leslie Cole,Jr

Leslie Cole,Jr — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 05:20:38 +0000

I can and have remained angry over this case for 20 years. John and Coco were good friends of mine. It,s scary to think we are not considered to be a person of worth because a judge(?) is able to put his personal and biased views and opinions ahead of a what should have been justice for 2 murder victims. He said John and Coco were out cruising for teenage boys but who was really out cruising for gays? Also why were they(the men)(I thought you were an adult at 18,but in this case the judge seemed to think they were “boys”) in this section of town? He said he did what he “thought” was right. I dont believe he thought at all. Maybe,God forbid, something like this will happen to one of your family members who may not be a straight,white,male,Christian. Who will be there for them? Will you want justice for them or do you want some racial, bigoted, uncaring, unthinking judge to put his own little personal views on the verdict and sentence and do as he “thinks” is right? People need to be louder and be heard and vote/demand these kind of people get out of offices/positions that they clearly do not need to be in. One cannot simply sit around and hope someone else will make it happen or that it will go away on it,s own.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 22:04:32 +0000

I cannot get too angry about this case, in a way. The judge feels about gays and lesbians and prostitutes the way I feel about right-wing Texans. If this makes me a bad person, then I have to live with that.